Search Party started strong in its second season after a rather uneven first. The mystery surrounding a missing young woman and Alia Shawkat's amateur sleuth didn't find its footing until the first season's finale, with a lot of filler in the earlier episodes involving her friend's work lives and relationships. Once the show focuses on the various players in the central mystery, it shines, and this new season seems solely concerned with the fallout from the ensemble solving the mystery at the end of season one.

Shawkat, having found the missing woman hiding out in Montreal, is confronted by Ron Livingston's private eye and kills him with the help of her two friends. The aftermath is a messy comedy of errors and the humor of the show really shines in these moments.

I know there's a lot of shows out there (far, far too many to keep up with) but I'm glad to have stumbled across this one, mainly because I'm happy to see Shawkat in the lead.

Anyone been watching this? The second season has recently shown in the US but I've caught up with the first series, which was recently shown in the UK (it's from 2015, I think).

Alia Shawkat, from Arrested Development, plays an aimless twenty something New Yorker with a doofus boyfriend and some awful friends. She sees a flyer of a missing girl, whom she recognises as a former roommate at college and she begins to investigate. It then goes into many different and weird scenarios.

I’m watching it. Only the first couple of episodes of season 2 have aired in the US (though maybe you can binge the whole season on the TBS app or something). It’s great and Alia Shawkat is excellent. (She’s always been good, but she’s quirky-looking so I assumed she’d have no second act after Arrested Development. I’m pleased to be proven wrong.)

I tried to get people here interested in the show last season to no apparent avail.

I can't comment on the Rivette parallels since I've only seen Celine and Julie and La Belle Noiseuse, but I would say the show plays out like a dark screwball comedy, perhaps Hawks crossed with Hitchcock.

With the close of the second season I've really fallen for this show, especially for exposing me to Meredith Hagner and John Early, who never cease to charm in their scenes. I've been burned like any TV viewer with the ubiquitous formula of cliffhanger TV, where a show drags on for a season while cruelly teasing answers and meet-ups withheld until the finale. Search Party has so far avoided those pitfalls, and instead provided resolutions both satisfying in their simplicity and hilarious in their irony.

What works best in the show is the brilliant cast, who embody their roles so well and add such an energy to the plot that I think I'd watch even if the show faltered. Alia Shawkat is the weakest link in the four, but that's largely because she's yet to be given the same isolated outbursts of comedy that the other three have. Whereas Early, Hager and John Reynolds all stumble about like cartoons, Shawkat is the straight woman, stressing over the fallout of her decisions and always looking over her shoulder.

Hopefully I'll convince some others to try it out, I don't champion a lot on this board but I've found a cause.